[42.09] The ASTRA Spectrophotometer: A Progress Report

A spectrophotometer with a CCD detector and its automated
0.5-m telescope at the Fairborn Observatory, Washington
Camp, AZ are currently under construction. They were
designed for efficient operations. By the end of 2004,
scientific observations should be in progress. The Citadel
ASTRA (Automated Spectrophotometric Telescope Research
Associates) Telescope will be able to observe Vega the
primary standard, make rapid measurements of the naked-eye
stars, use 10 min./hour to obtain photometric measurements
of the nightly extinction, and obtain high quality
observations of V= 10.5 mag. stars in an hour. This
cross-dispersed instrument will have an approximate
wavelength range of \lambda\lambda3300-9000 with a
resolution of 14 Å in first and 7 Å in second order
and except for regions badly affected by telluric lines. At
the end of the photometric calibration process, filter
photometric magnitudes and indices will be calibrated. Some
will serve as quality checks.

During the first year of observing a grid of secondary
standards will be calibrated differentially with respect to
Vega. These stars will also be used to find the nightly
extinction. The candidates for this process have been
selected from the most stable of the bright secondary stars
of the grating scanner era supplemented by the least
variable main sequence B0-F0 band stars in Hipparcos
photometry and some metal poor stars. Over the lifetime of
the instrument, measurements of secondary stars will be used
to improve the quality of the secondary standard fluxes.
Science observations for major projects such as comparisons
with model atmospheres codes and for exploratory
investigations should also begin in the first year. The
ASTRA team in planning to deal with this potential data
flood realize that they will need help to make the best
scientific uses of the data. Thus they are interested in
discussing possible collaborations. In less than a year of
normal observing, all isolated stars in the Bright Star
Catalog which can be observed can have their fluxes well
measured.

ASTRA Contribution 2. This work is supported by NSF grant
AST-0115612 to The Citadel.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address
for comments about the abstract:
adelmans@citadel.edu